Bluebird in My Face

I only cry out one side of my face now

Half of me is still sensitive

The other half is lost to the women

When they say something

So incredibly hurtful

Instead of falling to my knees

I only leak out one side

So that when they say

What is wrong, Neal

I say

Nothing

And they see a stone face

As my other snakes up

Pushes the tear away from the other side

And pretends to adjust the hair

It’s convenient to lose feeling

For anyone but a poet

And I’ve struggled how to write this

For a month and a half now

Realizing that it’s okay

It’s not the loss of feeling

It’s just the hiding of it

And it can come out here

It can come out here

It can do whatever the hell it wants

Out both sides of its face here

And still

No one will see it

Reassurance